A*?/  5" 


STUDENT  LEAFLETS 


FOR  YOUNG  WOMENS  CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATIONS 

Committee  Work 

IN 

Small  Associations 


ELEANOR  RICHARDSON 
Field  Student  Secretary  for  Delaware, 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania 


a 


National  Board 

op  The  Young  Womens  Christian  Associations 
op  the  United  States  op  America 
600  Lexington  Avenue 
New  York 
1914 


Committee  Work 


The  majority  of  our  Student  Associations 
have  not  had  the  good  fortune  to  have  a  resi¬ 
dent  general  secretary,  and  are  so  far  away 
from  large  cities  that  they  cannot  often  avail 
themselves  of  outside  speakers.  It  is  for 
these  Association  members  who  have  to  de¬ 
pend  so  entirely  upon  their  own  ability  to 
make  their  work  strong  in  college  that  I  am 
going  to  try  to  go  into  detail^ as  to  definite 
ways  in  which  we  may  make  our  Association 
a  more  effective  force  in  college  life. 

We  know  what  we  would  like  to  have  our 
Association  be — all  things  to  every  member, 
where  friends  are  always  enlarging  and  en¬ 
riching  their  friendships,  where  they  can  come 
into  touch  with  the  big  Christian  movements 
of  the  world  and  church  while  they  are  separ¬ 
ated  from  their  own  church  during  four  col¬ 
lege  years,  and  where  Jesus  Christ  may  be 
known  better  by  each  member  as  her  own 
personal  friend,  to  whom  she  will  give  her 
best  in  service,  both  at  college  and  after 
graduation. 


1 


Good  Committee  Work. 

If  this  is  what  we  want  our  Association  to 
stand  for,  our  Cabinet  girls  must  be  very  con¬ 
scious  that  every  member  has  something  to 
contribute  to  the  Association,  just  as  much 
as  they  are  already  aware  that  the  Association 
has  something  to  give  to  each  of  them.  So,  as 
we  consider  the  work  of  the  different  commit¬ 
tees,  let  us  be  very  careful  to  give  a  definite 
responsibility  to  every  member  of  those  com¬ 
mittees.  If  we  are  doing  good  work  this  year, 
next  year’s  work  should  be  even  better. 
What  is  the  aim  of  every  committee  in  rela¬ 
tion  to  next  year’s  activities?  And  again,  we 
are  pretty  sure  that  when  a  chairman  says 
that  there  is  not  enough  work  for  her  com¬ 
mittee  to  do  to  keep  her  girls  busy,  there  is 
either  something  the  matter  with  her  ability 
to  lead,  or  her  loyalty  to  the  purpose  for 
which  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciation  stands.  Being  a  cabinet  member 
means  time,  careful  thinking,  hard  work  and 
much  prayer. 

I  wish  that  all  of  the  Associations  in  this 
country  might  take  for  their  working  watch¬ 
word  this  year,  “a  definite  piece  of  work  for 
every  member.” 


2 


Meetings  Committee. 

How  many  girls  should  be  on  this  commit¬ 
tee?  Just  as  many  as  can  be  kept  busy,  and 
no  more!  One  girl  will  have  as  her  own  re¬ 
sponsibility  the  special  music  for  the  weekly 
meetings;  another  will  have  as  hers  the  secur¬ 
ing  of  attractive  posters  for  the  bulletin  boards 
to  announce  these  meetings.  Let  us  not 
think  for  a  minute  that  when  the  music  mem¬ 
ber  has  found  the  pianist,  or  the  poster  mem¬ 
ber  has  secured  one  girl  to  make  a  poster  for 
one  meeting  that  month,  she  has  done  her 
work.  For  there  are  four  posters  to  be  used 
in  that  time,  and  “Special  music7’  means  a 
solo  one  week,  a  duet  another,  or  the  train¬ 
ing  of  a  chorus,  and  sometimes  the  training 
of  a  group  of  girls  for  a  processional,  perhaps 
for  the  special  Easter  song  service.  And  the 
girl  who  is  responsible  for  the  posters  must 
not  only  prepare  one  fitting  for  the  Christmas 
bazaar,  but  when  she  hears  there  is  to  be  a 
meeting  on  “India  Awakening.”  she  will  be 
so  full  of  ideas  that  she  will  perhaps  ask  one 
of  her  helpers  to  make  a  conventional  bamboo 
design  for  the  poster.  Two  girls  such  as  these 
who  will  work  not  by  fits  and  starts,  but 
steadily,  are  only  “samples”  of  loyalty  to 

3 


their  Association  in  little  ways  as  month  after 
month  goes  by. 

And  then,  two  of  the  Meetings  Committee 
members  can  be  responsible  for  the  clippings 
library.  What  an  aid  a  clippings  library  is 
to  a  small  Association  in  providing  material 
for  the  leaders  of  the  weekly  devotional  serv¬ 
ice!  So  often  a  girl  will  say,  “I  would  lead, 
if  you  gave  me  any  material  on  that  subject.” 
Our  committee  is  responsible  for  securing  the 
material.  Get  one  of  your  Baptist  girls  to 
give  you  her  home  copy  of  the  “Sunday  School 
Times,”  and  a  Presbyterian  girl  to  give  you 
her  home  copy  of  the  “Christian  Endeavor 
World,”  and  clip  out  all  of  the  material  that 
you  think  might  be  used  some  time  at  some 
meeting,  and  put  them,  according  to  their  sub¬ 
jects,  into  different  envelopes.  One  envelope 
for  instance  would  contain  everything  relat¬ 
ing  to  the  subject,  “The  Stewardship  of  In¬ 
fluence”;  another  envelope  would  be  marked 
“Reverence:  Are  we  giving  it  its  Rightful 
Place  in  College  Life?”  and  still  another  would 
hold  material  for  a  Christmas  service.  Year 
after  year  the  clippings  library  would  grow 
until  we  would  never  be  at  a  loss  to  give  out 
material  to  our  leaders  on  any  subject  which 


we  might  have.  Another  girl  would  be  re¬ 
sponsible  for  distributing  the  hymnals  and 
seeing  that  the  ventilation  is  cared  for  during 
the  meeting. 

These  girls,  together  with  the  Chairman, 
come  together  to  plan  the  meetings.  Why 
not  ask  the  Missionary  Committee  to  be  re¬ 
sponsible  for  one  missionary  meeting  a  month, 
having  half  of  them  on  foreign  countries, 
one  on  biographies,  and  the  rest  on  subjects 
dealing  with  the  home  land?  A  five-cent 
“Missionary  Meetings”  pamphlet  from  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement  headquarters 
would  be  a  great  help  to  them  in  choosing 
subjects.  Then  why  not  ask  the  Bible  Com¬ 
mittee  also  to  be  responsible  for  one  monthly 
meeting,  suggesting  to  them  that  they  use 
some  text  book  as  their  guide,  such  as  Miss 
Adams’  “Women  of  Ancient  Israel,”  or  Miss 
Cutler’s  “Out  of  Doors  in  the  Bible”?  Both 
of  these  books  are  full  of  material  for  the  girls 
who  speak.  Once  in  two  months  let  us  have 
an  informational  meeting  on  such  subjects 
as  the  World’s  Student  Christian  Federation, 
the  Consumers’  League,  Miss  Jane  Adciams 
and  her  work  at  Hull  House,  the  Daily  Vaca¬ 
tion  Bible  School,  Eight  Week  Clubs,  etc.; 


5 


for  certainly  our  Association  ought  to  help 
the  girls  to  get  in  touch  with  outside  social 
agencies  so  that  they  can  know  their  actual 
sphere  of  work  when  they  take  their  positions 
as  teachers  or  social  workers  in  the  communi¬ 
ties  throughout  our  States.  The  other  meet¬ 
ings  may  well  deal  with  subjects  which  should 
be  especially  chosen  with  reference  to  our  own 
local  college  needs.  The  pamphlet  “Sug¬ 
gested  Topics  for  Religious  Meetings”  should 
help  you  in  choosing  them.  If  we  have  some 
programme  planned  out  for  the  whole  year’s 
meetings,  we  shall  be  likely  to  make  our  meet¬ 
ings  a  stronger  spiritual  force  in  our  lives. 
In  them  all  let  us  be  sure  that  we  have  a 
strong  spirit  of  prayerful  devotion. 

How  long  shall  our  meetings  be?  With 
our  crowded  schedules  a  short  meeting  that 
is  to  the  point  will  serve  our  purpose  best. 
Is  it  fair  to  ask  one  girl  to  speak  for  twenty  or 
twenty-five  minutes,  when  we,  as  a  Meetings 
Committee,  know  how  long  it  will  take  her 
to  think  out  carefully  what  she  shall  say  to 
help  us  in  that  time?  Sometimes  we  can  sub¬ 
divide  our  general  topics  so  that  four  girls  can 
speak  for  five  minutes  each.  I  think  that 
is  fairer,  and  besides  we  are  using  more  of 


6 


our  members  in  that  way.  Let  me  cite  to 
you  such  a  meeting.  Take,  for  instance, 
“The  Stewardship  of  Influence/7  which,  by 
the  way,  a  Meetings  Committee  in  one  of  our 
Southern  colleges  prepared.  The  first  girl 
would  speak  on  “Evil  Influence,  a  Stumbling 
Block77;  the  second  would  speak  on  “The  In¬ 
fluence  of  Speech  and  of  Manners77;  the  third 
on  “The  Unconscious  Influence  of  Charac¬ 
ter77;  and  the  fourth  on  “The  Influence  of 
Outspoken  Discipleship.77  The  girl  who  pre¬ 
sides  at  the  meeting  would  end  it  by  summing 
up  the  meeting  in  the  last  topic.  Planning 
out  such  a  meeting  as  that,  however,  takes 
time  and  prayer.  How  can  the  Meetings 
Committee  meet  less  than  twice  a  month,  if 
it  accepts  its  share  of  responsibility?  Its 
members,  next  to  the  Cabinet,  must  be  the 
most  consecrated  girls  in  college. 

Bible  Study  Committee. 

The  Bible  Study  Committee  must  consider 
the  question  of  time  before  it  proceeds  far  on 
its  plans.  It  isn’t  fair  in  the  Christian  sense, 
is  it,  to  ask  the  girl  to  go  to  the  weekly  meet¬ 
ing,  to  a  Bible  study  class  the  next  evening, 
to  church  on  Sunday,  Sunday  school,  and  a 


7 


mission  study  class  that  afternoon?  There 
are  literary  societies,  the  Athletic  Association 
and  German  Club,  etc.,  in  college,  which,  if 
taken  away,  would  make  our  college  life  so 
much  the  more  meagre,  and  they  also  take 
a  certain  numbed  of  hours  each  week.  The 
wise  Bible  Committee  works  to  have  the 
Association  girls  do  some  definite  Bible  study 
by  themselves,  or  in  groups,  and  never  fails 
to  encourage  the  habit  of  “morning  watch” 
on  the  part  of  every  girl  in  school.  (“The 
Christian  Social  Order”  is  a  splendid  little 
pamphlet  for  daily  Bible  readings  which  every 
Bible  Committee  should  promote.)  The  wise 
Bible  Committee  tries  to  enroll  the  mem¬ 
bership  in  Sunday  school  classes,  and  accord¬ 
ingly  links  up  the  Association  members  with 
their  own  denominations.  This  very  defi¬ 
nitely  helps  to  solve  the  question  of  time  and 
does  away  with  one  extra  hour.  If  such  co¬ 
operation  with  the  town  Sunday  schools  is  not 
possible,  then  the  ideal  study  group  in  school 
numbers  not  more  than  fifteen,  and  is  led  by 
a  student.  Wouldn’t  it  be  splendid  if  there 
could  be  such  a  Bible  study  group  in  each 
corridor  of  the  dormitory  and  if  all  their  lead¬ 
ers  should  have  received  help  beforehand  in 


8 


a  normal  class  led  by  one  of  the  faculty!  If 
that  plan  is  not  possible  this  year,  but  is  prac¬ 
ticable,  the  Bible  Committee,  through  its 
good  planning,  might  make  it  possible  for  the 
incoming  committee  to  realize  this  ideal. 

Let  us  be  sure  that  the  Bible  Study  Rally 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year  really  is  a  rally, 
whether  it  be  for  group  study  in  the  school 
or  for  Sunday  school  classes.  An  outside 
speaker  would  be  a  splendid  stimulus,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  one-minute  talks  by  ten  girls,  who 
would  tell  tersely  and  quickly  what  they  actu¬ 
ally  got  out  of  the  classes  last  year.  The 
Rally,  of  course,  would  be  followed  by  the 
Canvass.  And  what  careful  preparation  we 
need  for  that!  I  remember  when  I  was  in  col¬ 
lege  the  domineering  way  in  which  one  girl 
approached  me.  I  would  not  have  joined  for 
anything,  right  then.  Later,  another  girl  asked 
me.  She  told  me  of  the  possibilities  of  Bible 
study  among  us  girls  in  such  a  simple,  straight¬ 
forward  and  earnest  way  that  I  realized  that 
I  would  be  the  loser  if  I  did  not  care  to  join. 
Let  us  study  every  girl  before  we  approach 
her,  and  be  very  sure  of  ourselves  as  well ;  that 
is,  that  we  are  not  approaching  her  to  get  her 
to  join  a  class  so  that  the  record  of  past  en- 


9 


rollments  may  be  broken,  but  because  we 
want  her  for  her  own  self  to  enjoy  with  us  all 
that  studying  the  Bible  will  mean.  I  wish 
that  every  committee  member,  whether  she  be 
on  the  Bible  Committee,  or  the  Social,  or  the 
Missionary  Committee,  would  do  her  work 
because  she  cares  for  every  girl  in  the  school. 
The  more  friends  we  make  the  stronger  will 
be  our  Association  life. 

The  Missionary  Committee. 

The  Bible  study  classes  may  best  be  held 
during  the  first  semester.  The  Missionary 
Committee  will  then  have  ample  time  to  find 
its  leaders  among  the  girls  who  went  to  the 
summer  conference  last  year,  or  those  who 
are  already  vitally  interested  in  missionary 
work,  for  their  classes  during  the  second  sem¬ 
ester.  If  you  can  have  more  than  one  class, 
there  should  be  one  on  a  foreign  country,  one 
on  the  homeland,  and  still  another  for  study¬ 
ing  the  problems  of  social  service  in  the  cities 
and  country  districts  to-day.  By  dividing 
the  year  this  way,  we  will  be  solving  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  time  again,  and  so  we  may  expect 
better  attendance  and  better  work  done  in 
both  Bible  and  mission  study.  If  you  are  in 


10 


doubt  as  to  what  text  books  to  use,  send  for 
“The  Mission  Study  Prospectus/’  which  is  a 
free  pamphlet  which  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement  furnishes.  You  will  probably  want 
to  take  up  your  mission  study  along  the  lines 
suggested  by  the  Commission  on  Religious 
Education.  Ask  your  Field  Student  Secre¬ 
tary  for  the  detailed  plans  of  that  Com¬ 
mission. 

Besides  arranging  for  the  classes  and  find¬ 
ing  the  leaders,  the  Missionary  Committee 
should  plan  such  splendid  missionary  meet¬ 
ings  that  they  would  serve  as  one  of  the  best 
means  for  interesting  girls  in  joining  a  class. 
Let  me  give  you  a  sample  of  one  such  meeting. 
Purchase  Mr.  Eddy’s  book  on  “India  Awak¬ 
ening,”  and  let  that  be  the  subject  of  your 
meeting.  One  girl  might  give  a  brief  survey 
of  Indian  life  and  customs;  a  second  would 
speak  on  the  religion  of  the  Hindus;  a  third 
would  give  a  biographical  sketch  of  Pundita 
Ramabai,  and  the  leader  would  conclude  with 
the  “Future  of  India,  Our  Part  in  It.”  Such 
a  meeting  would  allow  only  a  very  superficial 
glimpse  of  the  country,  but  it  should  interest 
some  girls  enough  to  make  them  want  to  study 
it  more  carefully  for  eight  weeks,  when  they 


11 


would  really  become  in  some  degree,  masters 
in  understanding  the  Indian  people. 

The  Missionary  Committee  should  also  have 
charge  of  the  missionary  giving  in  college,  and 
that  means  very  much  more  than  collecting 
money.  It  means  that  they  must  keep  every 
girl  who  contributes  to  the  foreign  fund  of 
the  Association  well  informed  on  the  work 
which  she  is  actually  helping  to  support. 
Occasionally  the  Committee  should  present 
facts  about  your  foreign  work  at  a  regular  Asso¬ 
ciation  meeting,  for  the  first  two  or  three  min¬ 
utes.  You  ought  to  be  able  to  get  material 
for  it  from  your  Field  Student  Secretary,  or 
the  Secretary  of  your  own  church  mission 
board,  as  well  as  through  letters  from  foreign 
Secretaries  or  The  Association  Monthly  and 
the  church  papers.  If  one-half  of  the  girls 
are  giving  this  year,  weekly,  what  will  the 
incoming  Missionary  Committee  take  for  its 
aim  next  year?  The  Associations  which  are 
giving  the  most  to  missions  are  those  whose 
committees  take  envelopes  to  each  individual 
contributor  regularly  one  evening  each  week. 
These  envelopes  may  be  collected  at  the  time, 
or  put  in  the  Association  gift  box,  hanging 
near  the  bulletin  board  for  that  purpose.  I 


12 


would  suggest,  too,  that  when  your  foreign 
work  is  presented  at  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
you  place  a  printed  folder  in  the  hands  of 
every  member,  one  side  of  which  tells  briefly 
about  the  actual  work  which  you  are  aiming 
to  care  for,  and  on  the  other  side  of  which  is  a 
pledge  which  a  member  may  fill  in,  which  will 
read  something  like  this: 


“I . promise  to  give  to  the  support 

of  our  ....  work . cents  per  week,  payable  by  the 


month  \ 
term  J  Date 


This  pledge  can  be  recalled  by  notifying 
the  Chairman  of  the  Missionary  Committee, 
who  keeps  all  of  these  pledges  on  file.  It  will  be 
businesslike,  and  helpful  to  the  girls,  as  well,  in 
remembering  to  whose  work  they  contribute. 

Finally,  the  ideal  Missionary  Committee 
is  constituted  so  that  every  denomination 
which  is  represented  to  any  extent  among 
the  students  has  a  representative  on  it,  that  is, 
a  Presbyterian  girl  on  the  committee  would 
care  for  the  missionary  interests  of  her  church, 
and  the  Methodist  for  the  Methodist  interests, 
and  each  one  would  thus  keep  in  touch  with 
the  secretary  of  her  own  church  board. 


13 


The  Social  Committee. 

The  girls  on  the  Social  Committee  must  be 
full  of  ideas,  and  take  as  their  aim  that  of 
knowing  every  girl  in  college,  so  that  all  may 
be  one  big  family.  Besides  the  occasional 
joint  socials  with  the  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Association,  there  is  easily  a  place  for  one  big 
frolic  for  the  girls  themselves  each  term. 
Shall  that  be  in  the  form  of  a  baby  party, 
or  a  circus,  or  a  track  meet,  or  a  Japanese 
evening,  or  a  suffrage  tea?  It  might  mean  a 
great  deal  if  the  Committee  should  plan  occa¬ 
sionally  for  a  very  informal  half  hour  after 
supper  in  the  parlor,  at  different  times  during 
the  month,  perhaps  not  announcing  it  until 
supper  time,  and  not  even  having  refreshments, 
for  after  all,  refreshments  are  not  the  greatest 
part  of  a  social  good  time.  One  great  big 
laugh  means  much  more,  and  the  Social  Com¬ 
mittee  could  do  a  great  deal  of  good  if  it  could 
help  the  girls  to  laugh  together  and  relax  be¬ 
fore  study  hour  begins.  It  is  not  good  for  a 
girl’s  digestion  to  get  right  up  from  the  supper 
table  and  go  to  her  room  and  study!  So 
isn’t  that  a  need  to  be  met  by  the  Social  Com¬ 
mittee,  by  having  some  of  the  girls  prepared 


14 


to  tell  bright  stories,  or  to  do  two  or  three 
tricks  for  amusement,  those  mid-week  nights? 

If  there  is  a  need  for  getting  together,  the 
Social  Committee,  through  its  ingenuity, 
must  find  out  how  to  insure  a  good  time. 
How  can  its  members  do  their  work  well  unless 
they  come  together  to  plan  out  carefully  the 
evening’s  program?  If  the  Social  Committee 
could  invite  a  teacher  to  talk  on  “Etiquette” 
around  the  open  fireplace  some  night,  or  have 
another  on  a  similar  occasion  speak  of  “Thrift 
and  Efficiency,”  and  all  the  plans  of  the  Na¬ 
tional  Commission  on  Thrift,  it  would  be  en- 
riching  another  side  of  our  natures  that  much 
the  more.  When  the  autumn  comes,  remem¬ 
ber  the  sport  there  is  for  Association  girls  in 
a  tramp  into  the  woods  and  around  the  camp¬ 
fire,  if  you  carry  a  box  of  marshmallows  and 
a  bag  of  apples  under  your  arm.  The  Social 
Committee  has  a  great  big  work  to  do,  and  it 
needs  careful  planning  and  prayer  to  accom¬ 
plish  its  task,  just  as  much  as  the  Religious 
Meetings  or  Missionary  Committee. 

Social  Service  Committee. 

The  Social  Service  Committee’s  work  va¬ 
ries  so  much  in  town,  city  and  country  commu- 


15 


nities  that  each  Association  has  to  find  its  own 
place  of  usefulness  in  the  community.  It 
may  be  that  filling  Thanksgiving  baskets, 
dressing  dolls  for  poor  children  at  Christmas 
time,  visiting  the  sick  and  aged,  distributing 
flowers,  reading  aloud  to  shut-ins,  or  telling 
stories  to  little  children  will  be  all  that  it 
is  possible  for  one  Association  to  do.  Some¬ 
times  the  Association,  through  this  committee, 
can  provide  volunteer  workers  as  club  leaders 
for  city  Associations;  or  again,  it  may  be  able 
to  carry  on  educational  classes  or  play  hours 
among  the  girls  in  the  rural  districts.  It  is 
for  you  to  find  out  from  the  social  organiza¬ 
tions  which  may  exist  in  your  town,  what  help 
of  yours  would  be  welcome.  One  thing  you 
may  be  sure  of — there  is  something  that  your 
Association  ought  to  do. 

Finance  Committee. 

The  Finance  Committee  has  as  its  chairman 
the  Treasurer;  in  turn  the  Treasurer  has  the 
Finance  Committee  to  help  her  in  her  mani¬ 
fold  duties.  She  gives  receipts  for  all  dues, 
and  asks  receipts  for  all  paid  bills.  The  other 
members  of  the  Committee  help  to  collect 
the  dues.  They  may  decide  to  have  a  pay- 


16 


day  social  for  this  purpose,  letting  each  class 
come  dressed  to  represent  a  different  type  of 
girl  in  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion — the  Freshman,  for  instance,  representing 
the  immigrants,  the  Sophomores,  country  girls, 
the  Juniors,  the  Indian  and  the  Seniors,  the 
women  of  industry.  They  all  bring  their 
dues  with  loyalty  to  the  National  Associa¬ 
tion  Movement  that  day.  Forty  per  cent, 
of  their  dues  they  will  vote  to  send  on  to  their 
Field  Committee  headquarters  (a)  for  sup¬ 
port  of  the  supervisory  work  of  the  field, 
which  makes  possible  the  visit  of  their  Student 
Secretary  each  year;  (b)  for  the  National 
Board,  which  among  the  many  other  things 
it  does  for  the  student  Associations  provides 
a  summer  conference  for  their  delegates;  and 
(c)  for  the  World’s  Young  Women’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association,  of  which  we  are  a  part,  and 
which  sends  us  literature  for  the  World’s 
Week  of  Prayer  every  fall.  This  gift  of  forty 
per  cent,  of  all  dues,  all  of  which  should  be 
sent  to  the  Field  Office,  is  distributed  by  the 
Field  Office  to  the  larger  National  and  World’s 
Association.  That  leaves  sixty  per  cent,  of 
the  dues  for  the  year’s  running  expenses,  and 
as  the  Treasurer  and  Finance  Committee 


17 


stand  responsible  for  any  debt  incurred  by  the 
Association,  each  Committee  must,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year,  hand  in  to  the  Finance 
Committee  the  estimate  of  how  much  money 
it  would  like  to  use  for  its  work.  Unless  the 
Finance  Committee  passes  on  such  an  esti¬ 
mate  in  advance,  each  Committee  is  held  re¬ 
sponsible  for  meeting  its  own  debt.  The 
Finance  Committee  is  empowered,  of  course, 
to  cut  down  the  expenses  of  each  Committee 
as  it  sees  best,  to  make  the  books  balance  in 
June.  The  Finance  Committee  is  also  respon¬ 
sible  for  raising  the  Conference  Fund  and  this 
is  where  its  ingenuity  is  brought  to  light.  It 
is  the  work  of  this  committee  to  raise  money 
just  as  it  is  the  Social  Committee’s  work  to 
give  socials,  so  they  must  provide  different 
means  of  entertainment  other  than  the  free 
socials,  to  which  admission  may  be  charged. 
If  an  Association  wants  to  raise  $100  for  its 
Conference  Fund,  it  would  be  the  wisdom  of 
foresight  to  raise  half  of  it  before  Christmas! 
The  spring  term  is  always  more  crowded  than 
we  had  expected.  In  raising  the  Conference 
Fund  every  Committee  ought  to  be  able  to 
depend  in  some  degree  upon  the  gifts  given 
by  delegates  whom  the  Association  has  sent 


18 


in  past  years.  It  is  safer  to  write  letters  to 
those  delegates  as  early  as  the  first  of  March. 
Let’s  have  the  Finance  Committee  members 
show  the  whole  Association  the  ethical  value 
of  money,  both  in  the  way  they  administer 
it,  and  in  the  devoted  and  energetic  way  in 
which  they  set  about  to  get  it. 

Membership  Committee. 

The  Vice-President  is  chairman  of  the  Mem¬ 
bership  Committee.  Those  on  this  commit¬ 
tee  call  on  the  girls  individually  as  soon  as 
the  new  girls  enter  and  during  the  first  call 
tell  them  of  the  ideals  of  the  Association  and 
the  various  forms  of  work  it  is  doing  in  college, 
and  also  of  the  work  of  the  National  Student 
Movement  and  the  World’s  Student  Chris¬ 
tian  Federation,  with  which  the  local  Asso¬ 
ciation  has  affiliation.  They  invite  them  to 
join  a  week  later.  The  Recognition  Service 
should  be  used  when  the  girls  are  voted  into 
Association  membership.  When  the  girls 
have  become  members,  the  work  of  the  Mem¬ 
bership  Committee  is  then  only  well  on  its 
way  to  completion.  They  must  come  to 
know  those  girls  so  well  that  they  will  be  in 


19 


a  position  to  advise  the  Cabinet  where  the 
new  girls  can  work  best. 

The  Advisory  Board. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  our  advisory  officers 
can  be  of  great  help  to  us  if  we  make  them  so. 
The  Association  is  ours  and  oftentimes  our 
faculty  members,  in  realizing  this,  wait  to  be 
approached  and  asked  to  help.  I  wish  they 
might  meet  with  our  Cabinet  occasionally, 
say  once  every  three  months,  so  that  we  can 
tell  them  of  plans  and  receive  the  benefit  of 
their  experience  and  suggestions,  for  they  were 
probably  members  of  an  Association  Cabinet 
when  they  were  students.  We  must  make 
the  first  advance,  remembering  to  invite  them 
to  our  socials,  and  letting  them  know  how 
definitely  they  may  contribute  to  the  Asso¬ 
ciation. 

Perhaps  you  want  to  know  where  to  send 
for  all  of  these  pamphlets  that  have  been  men¬ 
tioned  in  our  talk  together.  If  you  want  help 
along  missionary  lines  of  any  sort,  write  to 
Mr.  J.  Lovell  Murray,  Educational  Secretary 
of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  600 
Lexington  Ave.,  New  York  City;  and  for 
missionary  publications,  simply  to  the  Student 


20 


Volunteer  Movement  at  the  same  address. 
If  you  want  pamphlets  on  Association  work, 
or  Bible  study  text  books,  have  your  secretary 
write  to  the  Publication  Department,  Na¬ 
tional  Board  of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian 
Association,  600  Lexington  Ave.,  New  York, 
enclosing  stamps  or  money  order  for  the  pur¬ 
chase  in  advance.  And  if  any  Chairman  or 
President  or  Secretary  wants  to  know  more 
fully  how  to  develop  her  work,  she  should 
write  to  her  Field  Student  Secretary,  who 
knows  the  problems  of  that  college  first  hand, 
and  who  is  best  able  to  give  the  right  kind  of 
help.  With  all  this  correspondence,  the  Sec¬ 
retary,  as  Chairman  of  the  Association  News 
Committee,  will  be  kept  busy,  for  besides  her 
usual  correspondence  and  distribution  of  Asso¬ 
ciation  News  from  the  national  movement, 
she  will  write  news  items  to  her  Field  Secre¬ 
tary  every  month  or  two,  which  will  be  inter¬ 
esting  enough  to  publish  in  the  news  column  of 
“The  North  American  Student,”  or  “The 
Association  Monthly.”  You  have  both  of 
those  magazines  on  the  library  table,  I  sup¬ 
pose,  in  order  to  benefit  from  the  failures  and 
strong  points  of  all  of  the  student  Associations 
in  our  land,  as  well  as  to  keep  in  close  contact 


21 


with  the  Christian  womanhood  of  the  world. 
They  also  are  obtainable  from  the  Publica¬ 
tion  Department,  and  if  ordered  together, 
may  be  obtained  for  $1.70,  instead  of  the  $1.00 
which  each  of  them  costs  if  ordered  separately. 

The  Cabinet. 

The  chairman  of  all  the  Committees,  with 
the  officers  of  the  Association,  acting  as  the 
executive  body  for  all  of  the  Association  girls, 
will  have  to  pass  on  questions  of  general  policy 
which  cannot  be  cared  for  by  any  one  com¬ 
mittee.  It  is  they  who  should  answer  such 
questions  from  your  Field  Secretary  as  that 
about  the  deepening  of  the  meaning  of  Asso¬ 
ciation  membership,  or  who  would  take  up 
such  questions  as  what  social  service  work 
the  Association  should  carry  out  (for  certainly 
an  Association  which  has  no  outlet  will  sooner 
or  later  become  like  a  stagnant  pool) ,  who  will 
recommend  to  your  Field  Secretary  leaders 
for  the  rural  Eight  Weeks  Clubs,  who  will  pass 
upon  the  budget  drawn  up  by  the  Finance 
Committee,  who  will  keep  all  the  different 
activities  from  conflicting  with  one  another 
in  point  of  time,  or  in  duplicating  any  work, — 


22 


and  finally,  the  Cabinet  girls  are  to  be  the 
spiritual  dynamo  for  all  the  rest  of  the  ma¬ 
chinery.  Our  Association  at  large  will  never 
be  stronger  than  our  Cabinet.  “Let  us  work 
as  if  all  depended  upon  us,  and  pray  as  if  all 
depended  upon  God.” 


\ 


23 


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